386 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



Henry summoned to testify as to the condition of telegraphic 

 science, as well as to his own experimental researches, previous to 

 Morse's invention, was compelled to give evidence which did not 

 sustain entirely the theory of the complainants, and therefore did 

 not satisfy their very broad pretensions; though it did tend to 

 establish Professor Morse's just claims to originality. This account 

 can best be given in Henry's own statement : 



"A series of controversies and lawsuits having arisen between 

 rival claimants for telegraphic patents, I was repeatedly appealed 

 to, to act as expert and witness in such cases. This I uniformly 

 declined to do, not wishing to be in any manner involved in these 

 litigations, but was finally compelled, under legal process, to return 

 to Boston from Maine, whither I had gone on a visit, and to give 

 evidence on the subject. My testimony was given with the state- 

 ment that I was not a willing witness, and that I labored under the 

 disadvantage of not having access to* my notes and papers, which 

 were in Washington. That testimony however I now reaffirm to be 

 true in every essential particular. It was unimpeached before the 

 court, and exercised an influence on the final decision of the ques- 

 tion at issue. I was called upon on that occasion to state, not only 

 what I had published, but what I had done, and what I had shown 

 to others in regard to the telegraph. It was my wish, in every 

 statement, to render Mr. Morse full and scrupulous justice. While 

 I was constrained therefore to state that he had made no discove- 

 ries in science, I distinctly declared that he was entitled to the merit 

 of combining and applying the discoveries of others, in the inven- 

 tion of the best practical form of the magnetic telegraph. My 

 testimony tended to establish the fact that though not entitled to 

 the exclusive use of the electro-magnet for telegraphic purposes, he 

 was entitled to his particular machine, register, alphabet, <fcc. As 

 this however did not meet the full requirements of Mr. Morse's 

 comprehensive claim, I could not but be aware that, while aiming 

 to depose nothing but truth and the whole truth, - - - I might 

 expose myself to the possible, and as it has proved, the actual, 

 danger of having my motives misconstrued and my testimony mis- 

 represented. But I can truly aver that I had no desire to arrogate 

 to myself undue merit, or to detract from the iust claims of Mr. 

 Morse."* 



From this time, Professor Morse seemed to regard Henry with 

 the jealous eye of a rival, as if holding him disposed for purposes 

 of self-aggrandizement to detract from his own merit as projector 

 of the telegraph. After years of preparation, he had completed 



* Smithsonian Report for 1857, pp. 87, 88. 



